Red or white? No, I'm not talking about wine ... linguine with clams. Most folks have preference for either white sauce or red. I personally think they are both delicious - whether a luscious garlicky broth-based "white" sauce, or a rich tomato "red" sauce. Perfectly al dente linguine bathed in either sauce spiked with briny clams - equally good to me.I was inspired to give linguine with clams yet another twist when I saw Cooking Light's March issue which featured "breadcrumb pasta toppings." Basil pesto breadcrumbs was one of the choices - I thought why not combine this with some linguine and clams see what happens? First I cut up a red pepper and a sautéed it with a little olive oil and some garlic. Once soft, I added a can of clams and their juice and some crushed red pepper for some bite and let it simmer for a few minutes. When done, I added some chopped olives and basil. I added this to the hot cooked linguine and then poured a little lemon juice mixed with some olive oil over it. Right before serving I added the basil pesto breadcrumbs and gently mixed it all together. The verdict - it was really tasty! And it paired beautifully with a Acrobat Pinot Gris 2011

I have been hungrily immersing myself in oysters for the past couple months. Well, not literally - just reading everything I can about them for my next book, The $1,000 Dinner. It has been fascinating, enlightening research. I never realized the important role this oval-shaped bivalve has played throughout history. It has had the honor of gracing the fancy banquet tables of royalty and the super-wealthy and the most expensive, exclusive restaurant menus, while at the same time serving as an affordable street food for the common man sold from stalls and vendor carts and offered for just pennies at popular oyster bars. Of course they were the food that kicked off the $1,000 Dinner (Philadelphia restauranteur James Parkinson's 1851 culinary duel with the Delmonico family of NY). Oysters have been a fashionable first course really at least since the Romans feasted on them in great numbers. The most popular style is probably just served up raw on the half shell, but clever chefs have delighted in coming up with numerous other ways to showcase oysters over the years – fried, baked, frittered, featured in soups, bisques and gumbo, swimming in a rich sauce such as Oysters Rockefeller – even as flavorings for items ranging from Thanksgiving turkey stuffing to catsup (who knew?). So, when my husband and I ate at the delightful Jose Garces restaurant Chifa this past weekend, I just had to try the oysters ceviche Ecuadorian style (see above). What I got was a lovely presentation of four fresh raw oysters each resting on a tiny bed of shaved ice topped with a delicious marinade of spicy tomato, chives, yellow tomato gel and avocado. A perfect foil for the plump, briny, juicy oysters. Not only were they gorgeous to look at, they melted in my mouth. And as the research continues ... I can't wait to try other oyster recipe combinations!

As all seasoned cooks know, along with the extremely satisfying successful results also come some unfortunate failures. Some are hugely disappointing and stress-inducing - like right before guests are due to arrive for a dinner party or holiday gathering - (which is why many folks never try out new recipes for these situations)! Other failed attempts are more of just a bummer - still disappointing, but they can also be a viewed as learning experience. I actually had two of these this weekend.The first was the adorable bunny rolls posted by The Face and Body Spa. They were so cute and looked easy enough that I had to try them. The dough was similar to a biscuit - with ingredients such as sour cream, an egg and yeast. It rose nicely and was pretty easy to work with. I shaped them and snipped the dough with a pair of scissors to make the ears as directed. However, when they baked, they puffed up so much that the ears shrunk and they looked more like chubby mice! What I learned: next time, I will shape the bunnies using smaller pieces of dough, and also work more quickly - maybe putting one batch in the oven while working on the next instead of trying to do them all at once. I think the ones I had shaped first continued to rise while just sitting on the baking sheet waiting for the others, which contributed to the "puff" factor. In any case, I will definitely try them again, since although they looked like what my daughter would call an "epic fail," they still tasted delicious! The other recipe that didn't work out was Easter cupcakes from the What's New Cupcake book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson that my daughter and I use over and over. As per the recipe directions, you are supposed to melt various colored Wilton chocolate melts and "paint" the inside of plastic Easter eggs, let them harden, then carefully remove the chocolate "shells." These are filled with jelly beans and then placed on top of green iced cupcakes (to simulate grass) and topped with flattened gumdrop ribbons and flowers. As is the case with all their cupcakes, they are creative, beautiful and edible! However, I couldn't source the required Wilton melting candy in time so I bought Baker's white chocolate and added some food color after melting. This seemed to work ok, but after letting them harden, the chocolate didn't detach from the shells properly. Perhaps I didn't oil the inside of the eggs enough, or maybe I didn't paint a thick enough layer of chocolate (this is what my daughter and I thought likely happened); OR maybe using the wrong chocolate was the main factor. No matter, they didn't work, so I had to come up with another scenario. I already had the green frosting and jelly beans so I thought to make mini-nests out of melted marshmallows and Special K cereal (like rice krispies treats) to sit on top of the cupcakes. I had made these type of "Easter nests" before - you basically just make melt some butter and marshmallows on the stove over low heat and then add rice cereal or even La Choy Chow Mein Noodles (which really look like twigs). Butter your hands and a cupcake tin and shape the mixture into the cupcake holders. For yesterday, I used a mini cupcake tin so the nests would sit nicely on top of the cupcakes. After frosting them with the green icing, I took a spreading knife and made little cuts then swirled the icing up a little to make it look more like grass, then sprinkled on some sugar candy decorating flowers before topping with the nests. In each one I was able to fit two speckled jelly beans. I frosted the other cupcakes with plain white and colored decorating sugar. So this failure wasn't a total dud ... and I WILL try to make the chocolate eggs again next year. But at least I know I have a backup if they fail again!